Former White House chief of staff addresses Illinois delegation

Republican John Sununu blasted President Barack Obama during a Thursday speech to the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention.

Republican John Sununu blasted President Barack Obama during a Thursday speech to the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Convention. (Brian Cassella)

Rick Pearson and John ByrneClout Street

TAMPA, Fla. — The combative and blunt-speaking John Sununu woke up Illinois’ GOP delegation on the final day of the Republican National Convention by tossing some major broadsides at President Barack Obama, even suggesting convicted influence-peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezko could help the Democrat purchase a new home after a Nov. 6 defeat.

A former New Hampshire governor and White House chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush, Sununu spent a lengthy 20 minutes Thursday speaking as a surrogate for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Sununu used the time to blast Obama as “inept” and “incompetent.”

“Are there folks here from Chicago?” Sununu asked the delegation. “You ought to go into the real estate business because there’s a guy who’s got a lot of friends who are coming, that’s coming back to look for a house next January. Maybe Tony Rezko can help him again.”

An Obama fundraiser, Rezko bought a vacant lot next to Obama’s Kenwood home at the same time the future president got a mortgage to buy his residence. Rezko later sold a portion of the lot to Obama. In 2008, Rezko was convicted of corruption associated with now-imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and was sentenced to 10 ½ years in federal prison. has said the real estate dealings were “a lapse in judgment.”

Sununu contended Obama has failed to bring the country together as he promised during his 2008 campaign.

“Can you imagine a president who made promises to unite who has failed so badly and who has, in such an unethical way, promoted class warfare and racial tension?” Sununu said. “You really think as clumsy as he is that Joe Biden’s comments on chains were an accident?”

Biden came under recent criticism for saying Republicans want to put voters “back in chains” if the GOP unchains Wall Street from restrictions.

Moreover, Sununu called Obama an “incompetent man, who has been campaigning for a year without really working in the White House,” preferring to play golf rather than meeting with his job-creation council.

“In an odd way, that’s what this election may be all about: competence over charm packagedin an inept president,” Sununu said.

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State Sen. Bill Brady, the unsuccessful GOP candidate for governor two years ago, met with delegates Thursday morning after arriving from an anniversary celebration in New York with his wife, Nancy. The senator from Bloomington said a decision on making a third bid for the office would “probably” come in January.

“Jeb Bush said it to me, he said, ‘You know, Bill, I don’t know if you’re going to run again. But I’ll tell you, strangely as it seems, I wouldn’t have won the second time if I didn’t lose the first,’” Brady recalled. “He said in big states like Illinois and Florida, people need to get to know you and if they don’t know you, when people attack you, it sticks. So it’s important that I continue to get to know people, if that’s what I want to do.”

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Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, who hosted the Wednesday night post-convention delegation party, couldn’t resist another shot at the late-arriving buses which marked the convention’s first day on Tuesday.

“I’m so glad you’re still awake, for gosh sakes,” Topinka said. “I don’t think most of you went to bed before three in the morning — and it wasn’t even because of the bus.”

Topinka also said she had been asked if she had a better appreciation for Romney because he can iron his own shirts. “Yes, I can relate to that,” said Topinka, adding she didn’t know how to iron. “My mother always told me, don’t ever learn how or otherwise you’re going to get stuck doing it forever.”

That prompted state GOP Chairman Pat Brady to say, “One of the first jobs in prison is the laundry room. Maybe Rod Blagojevich is ironing shirts today.”Added the party chairman: “Hey, you can’t go a whole convention without a Blagojevich joke.”

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The Illinois Republicans cast all their nominating votes in Tampa for Mitt Romney, but he and Rick Santorum waged a fierce March primary battle around the state, and 12 of the 69 delegates on hand in Tampa were pledged to Santorum until he released them last week.

On Thursday morning, Romney state chairman Dan Rutherford invited Santorum Illinois campaign director Jon Zahm to lead the delegation in the Pledge of Allegiance, a move Zahm said he appreciated but didn't need in order to feel welcomed by the Romney supporters.“We had a hard-fought campaign here. There could be bitter feelings held, but I haven't experienced them. I haven't felt disregarded,” Zahm said.